Time to pull plug on damaging web porn?

The era of the seedy sex shop appears to be coming to an end as more people access porn online.

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The damaging influence of pornography will be explored at a conference in Nottinghamshire this month. Jeremy Lewis hears about the issues.

IT'S an ever-growing communications marvel – a dazzling social and cultural medium that has made the world a much smaller place.

But there is a dark side to the internet, especially when it comes to the spread of a commodity that is sometimes illegal and invariably, say critics, damaging – especially to vulnerable children.

We are talking pornography – something you had to hunt for and purchase in the era of grubby mags and dodgy video cassettes.

Now, the click of a mouse can open up a universe of easy-access porn, much of it free to view.

It presents public agencies, churches, charities and families with a major challenge – made all the more complex because it is not an easy subject to talk about, especially between parents and children. Porn was and remains taboo.

That barrier will be broken down at a gathering in Nottinghamshire later this month.

The Porn Scars conference will be held in West Bridgford on Saturday, September 27. It is aimed at Church leaders, youth leaders, parents and grandparents.

"The conference aims to see Christians resourced to take on the problem," said a spokesman for charity Naked Truth, which is organising the event.

"With a seminar programme and keynote speakers that will both inform and inspire, we hope to provide tools to see lives changes and the power of porn broken."

For instance? Parents will pick up tips on how to talk to their children about the internet and pornography. And there will be information on how to restrict children's online access.

But first, the law. Is pornography illegal?

The most violent and degrading porn could fall foul of the Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964 and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.

Possession of child pornography (indecent photographs of under-18s) contravenes the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

However it's not so much the legal but the human consequences of pornography that concern Porn Scars speakers, who will include Naked Truth co-founder Ian Henderson, who had an especially painful motive for creating the charity – his late father was convicted of downloading indecent pictures of children. "The Naked Truth project is a massive dream," he said. "It longs for a change in how people think about porn as well as a change in their behaviour."

The exploitation of individuals in the making of pornography is one aspect of the debate. But what about the consumers – the 28,000 men, women and children who, according to Naked Truth, view porn online every second? How does it affect their behaviour?

Professor Kevin Browne, director of the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology at the University of Nottingham, said: "We have done research among young adults and found that there has been a decline in the use of lad mags, or anything that you have to pay for, and an increase in searches for free web pornography.

"It is only a minority of young people, but those who do use internet pornography are more likely to hold certain views – like being invited back to a flat for coffee being a sign that the host will be open to sex."

Prof Browne said studies showed that males who use pornography are more likely to hold that view; while women who use pornography are less likely to report a sexual assault. The effect of pornography on children he added, was different. "A great deal of children will see things they would not normally see until they are sexually active, and that can have an effect on their development. There is no doubt that pornography is addictive and, unless it is jointly appreciated, it can affect marriages."

It's also a subject on which Jim Wild, former Nottingham Trent University senior lecturer in social work, has strong views.

Mr Wild now runs the Sheffield-based child protection training service the Centre for Active and Ethical Learning in Child Protection.

He says there is now evidence of boys enacting at school what they have seen on pornographic films. "The danger is that their minds will be colonised by the idea of women being constantly sexually available," he said.

Mr Wild believes that for children, knowledge is the best defence against pornographers. "We don't have a decent system of sex education," he said. "Parents should make sure that their children have age-appropriate sex education throughout their development. The way the pornographers think is that if children don't know very much, they will spend all their time searching for pornographic websites."

He added: "Children have televisions or computers in their bedrooms and parents should make a point of learning about the new technology.

"Their children probably know more than they do and will know how to turn off a filter and watch anything they like."

The Porn Scars conference takes place on Saturday, September 27, at Nottingham Emmanuel School, Gresham Park Road, West Bridgford, from 10am to 4.30pm. £15 in advance, £20 on the door.

2 comments

I've always found it strange that a loving act between a couple is deemed offensive, while films depicting blood and gore are quite mainstrem and deemed acceptable. Obviously both need some kind of age limit. Personally I think governments like to keep us aggressive and violent, it helps when it comes to fighting their made up wars.

It is true to say that inadequate appropriate sex education is one reason for the vulnerability of those under the age of 18 on this subject. But the whole question of sex seems, to me, to be a unique problem particular to this country (the current UK); other countries appear to incorporate the subject of sex and sex education into their regular lifestyles resulting in a healthy and disciplined attitude to the subject.
Why are we so reticent and prudish...?﻿